At the time of its release, critics dismissed King of Kings as just another biblical epic, but film historians now recognize its significant reinterpretation of the genre. Ray's emphasis upon the political and social conflicts in the Holy Land makes the film seem even more relevant today than when it was filmed. Moreover, Ray emphasized the humanity of Christ and depended primarily on the radiant beauty of Jeffrey Hunter in the lead role to evoke his divinity.

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Despite the significant difficulties involved in King of Kings, in 1962 Ray agreed to direct another film for Bronston, 55 Days at Peking. From the start of the production, Ray became embroiled in disputes with star Charlton Heston and other members of the cast and crew. Ray's hospitalization following a heart attack in July 1962 was used by the Bronston organization as an excuse to terminate his involvement in the film.

In 1963, Ray opened the restaurant Nikka's in Madrid. Although it became a popular meeting place for young filmmakers, Nikka's lost a substantial amount of money. Until 1969, Ray moved from one European country to another, unsuccessfully promoting a variety of film projects.

Final years

Excited by the American youth movement of the 1960s, Ray decided to return to the United States in 1969. After making a short documentary on an anti-war rally in Washington D.C. on November 15, 1969, he moved to Chicago where he began a full-length movie on the trial of the "Chicago Seven," alleged leaders of the protest at the Democratic National Convention in 1968. Ray's loss of sight in his right eye in 1970 has been attributed to stress caused by his intensive work on this film, which he never completed.

While in Chicago, Ray got to know Susan Schwartz, then a student at the University of Chicago. Ray's partner for the rest of his life, Schwartz unofficially became his fourth wife.

Between 1971 and 1973, Ray taught film at Harpur College of the State University of New York at Binghamton. In the later 1970s, he taught classes in acting and film at the New York School of Arts and the Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute in New York City. According to all accounts, he was a dedicated and inspiring teacher, who encouraged his students to realize their own independent visions in film.

Between 1971 and 1973, in collaboration with students at Harpur, Ray began We Can't Go Home Again, a very loosely structured, partly autobiographical exploration of the plight of young people in America. After leaving Harpur in 1973, Ray independently continued this project, constantly editing and revising it. Technically complex and innovative, We Can't Go Home Again is composed of several components that are supposed to be shown on several screens simultaneously. Film historians debate whether a definitive version, corresponding with Ray's intentions, exists.

In 1976, Ray began treatment for alcoholism, but it was too late to overcome the devastating impact of many decades of abuse.

In 1977, the director was diagnosed with cancer, and he began painful medical treatments that lasted until his death in New York City on June 16, 1979.

Despite his illness, Ray collaborated in 1978 and 1979 with German filmmaker Wim Wenders on Lightning over Water, intended as a tribute both to Ray's achievements and to their friendship. Completed in 1980 by Wenders, the film provoked controversy because of its blunt depiction of Ray's mental and physical deterioration. However, given his long commitment to truth, Ray probably would have approved of this aspect of the film.

Conclusion

Since the 1990s, Ray has posthumously regained his favorable critical reputation in America, and he is now regarded as a prototype of the independent filmmakers who increasingly have dominated serious movie production in the United States. Within the past few years, there have been major retrospectives of his films at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City (2003), as well as at other prominent cultural institutions.

Undoubtedly, the most famous line from any film by Ray is Johnny Guitar's declaration: "I am a stranger here myself." That line describes Ray's own attitude to the world, as well as the situation of the protagonists in his films. In movies such as Johnny Guitar and Rebel without a Cause, he depicted outsiders who challenged dominant social and gender conventions and who continue to inspire queer viewers in the early twenty-first century.

Since cinema began, Hollywood has been fascinated with finding ways of representing homosexuality.

Gay, lesbian, and bisexual film directors have been a vital creative presence in cinema since the medium's inception over one hundred years ago.

Queer characters were a crucial component of the film noir landscape, part of the genre's challenge to complacent American values.

Film spectatorship is an integral part of queer culture, affording a process of self-invention and making possible the coded articulation of queer desires and identities.

McCarthyism, which attempted in the late 1940s and early 1950s to expunge Communists and fellow travelers from American public life, made homosexuals the chief scapegoats of the Cold War.

Despite the stereotyping of their cover art and their pathologizing of lesbianism, the American pulp novels of the 1950s and 1960s subverted the social and political prohibitions against homosexual expression during the McCarthy era.

Although film may be a director's rather than a writer's medium, gay and lesbian screenwriters have made significant contributions to both mainstream and independent film.

Although sometimes reviled by heterosexuals and homosexuals alike, the sissy has historically helped define gay culture, and has questioned the dominant constructions of sex and gender.

A distinctive American narrative genre that has developed over more than two centuries, the Western is now consumed worldwide; characteristically depicting homosocial relationships, it is also frequently suffused with homoeroticism.

Although he spent only two years in Hollywood before his untimely death, James Dean became an enduring icon of American film, one whose brooding non-conformity helped challenge rigid notions of masculinity.

Actor Farley Granger was best known for playing strikingly handsome yet emotionally vulnerable young men in classic 1940s films, but his long and productive career encompassed theater and television roles as well.

Best known as a screenwriter, Gavin Lambert was also a novelist and biographer who captured the essence of life in the film community in a perceptive and witty fashion.

Although actor Sal Mineo was twice nominated for an Academy Award, and enjoyed success as a stage director and recording artist, he is remembered chiefly for his performance in Rebel without a Cause.

The multifaceted Gore Vidal is important in the gay literary heritage because of the straightforwardness with which he pursued gay themes and included gay characters in his work.